Installing lights in locomotives


jtudor

jtudor

Member
I am working on some of my older locomotives, putting in DCC, cleaning them up, and lubricating.

I also decided to put in some new lighting, and Purchased some new grain of wheat bulbs to install.

How do you guys mount new bulbs in a locomotive when installing new lighting?
 
I've used two different techniques. 1. Some locos I've used 1.2 mm 1.5 volt grain of rice bulbs , I slide them in the existing holes and retain them with Alenes tacky glue on the inside of the hood. Wait over night before fooling with them after that. Even if they are too far in or out, the next day the tacky glue will let you push or pull them into proper location in the headlight holes. 2. Led's mounted in a plastic tube glued inside the hood. You'll get lots of other ideas soon I'm sure.
 
Well I use a more involved installation for my business at times so you can remove the shell with out a problem of wires. I mount the led's using rigid leads from the decoder that I bend. Next I take clear plastic rod, that is the same thickness as the headlight holes, I first take heat shrink tubing and then I heat it up and shrink it so it seals in the light of the LED so it only goes forward then I take a small piece of my clear plastic and attach it to the LED and I have painted the Clear tubing all black and i sanded it smooth and clean on the ends. Next I look at how I need to bend the tubing to make it to the headlight holes, I heat it up bend it, paint it black, clean the ends. Then glue the long sections into the headlight holes and the short piece on the LED when your done it makes a fiber optic effect. Mike
 
Mike's method, although the most time consuming, is by far the best. LEDS's give off almost no heat. The front 30 degree angle of the light coming out of the standard LED makes for a very bright light and lends itself well for pipe transmission with almost no loss of brightness. As Mike said, if you mount the headlights so they are attached to the decoder, you can take off the shell and not mess up the headlights. Even small incandescent lights give off a lot of heat in the confined space of a headlight housing when used with constant lighting and they burn out regularly. LED's last practically forever. A side benefit of using LED's is that you can use them for special effects, like Mars lights, with just some changes in CV settings.
 
It depends on the engine on steam I always just incert them into the headlight "bucket" and leave them louse so that I can easly move them if I need to maintece the loco.

on diesel I like to wrap the end of the bulb in black tape to control the bulbs light output. then I drill the lense or make a plastic holder to locate the bulb. I always like to maintence my locos. I feel that if you have to remove the shell (any you always will) it makes life easy if the bulbs can be removed easy. But to each your own and i do have a few diesels that have the bulbs hard wired into their locations.

Trent
 
Sorry to hijack this but I didn't want to make a new thread so I'll just ask this question here.

I was actually looking at putting in the Golden white LEDs in my athearn rtr, and replacing the crew frying headlight. But should I use 3mm, 5mm, where would be the best place to get them online? I know I would have to use at least a 680 ohm 1/4 watt resistor for each light.
 
UP2CSX said:
Mike's method, although the most time consuming, is by far the best. LEDS's give off almost no heat. The front 30 degree angle of the light coming out of the standard LED makes for a very bright light and lends itself well for pipe transmission with almost no loss of brightness. As Mike said, if you mount the headlights so they are attached to the decoder, you can take off the shell and not mess up the headlights. Even small incandescent lights give off a lot of heat in the confined space of a headlight housing when used with constant lighting and they burn out regularly. LED's last practically forever. A side benefit of using LED's is that you can use them for special effects, like Mars lights, with just some changes in CV settings.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the additional information to add to my method, I appreciate it. Mike
 
I use LEDs and mount a brass tube on the inside of the headlight to hold the LED in place. It is on longer leads and just slips into the the tube when I assemble the loco. I either use the headlight lens or peel the back off an MV lens or use a piece of polished fiber optic. See the July 2008 RMC for photos of how I put it all together when I built a model of MRL 391.
 
To hold them in a hole I use silicone. It is more forgiving than cement and will peel off. Ideal for LEDs but be color conscious it may show through the lens.

Hi Jacker, if you need a few go to Radio shack. 6000mcd or brighter for headlamps. Cab lighting can be less. Normally 3 mm for HO and 5mm for O. Using the tube method to transfer light, you want it close, to the diameter of the tube.RS does not carry Golden white. Online is good for bulk buying.
 
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